Will GM Ever Make a Supercharged ZR2/Trail Boss?

[dish]

Does GM have a strong future for performance packages on their vehicles?

Recently I've been seeing GM mentioned a lot in performance headlines. I've seen this with the Corvette. They've been setting records with the new ZR1 lap times, and with the ZR1X have the first American-made hyper car. Another area is GM entering into F1 with Cadillac. I know they tried to a few years ago with Andretti and that didn't go through, but now they're in under the Cadillac brand and have some experienced drivers. Who knows how they will do in F1, but it's clear they have been investing in how their brand is associated with performance.

With trucks specifically, GM has introduced the Trail Boss / AT4 with their current body style and now have the ZR2 / AT4X. At first I thought that these might be to compete with the Raptor and TRX. Although the styling / off-road capabilities are there, they don't have the performance upgrades for higher power. The closest GM has come was the Silverado Fox Factory edition, which is probably one of the highest performing trucks to date, but it was limited to only about 500 units and wasn’t truly a factory GM production model.

So my question is: Do you think GM will start offering more true performance packages for trucks down the road? For example, could we ever see a Trail Boss or ZR2 with the supercharged 6.2?

 

[PistolsFiring]

IMO, no. They might continue to tweak the turbomax to improve numbers but small displacement turbo motors seems to be the direction in half ton and smaller trucks.

 

[RET-G]

NOPE...my opinion. I used to love my SSEi Pontiac with the supercharged V6.

 

[Stormin08]

why havent they done it yet ??? that market is far to limited to pursue...
you have the TRX, Raptor and Raptor R...also the reason they have not done any real suspension that keeps up with the others. they have outside companies for those with the coin to spend, along with a high performing name tag to boot

 

[The Raven]

why havent they done it yet ??? that market is far to limited to pursue...
you have the TRX, Raptor and Raptor R...also the reason they have not done any real suspension that keeps up with the others. they have outside companies for those with the coin to spend, along with a high performing name tag to boot

They haven't done it up to this point because uber trucks WERE a dying breed. The TRX had already been discontinued and the Raptor R wouldn't have been far behind. Now that the TRX is back, the Raptor R may be sticking around...so it's not impossible that GM might pursue something like an LT5 in a Silverado. I'm not holding my breath though...and really, I don't care. I still don't see the point in "fast" trucks.

 

[Stormin08]

personally, i would prefer the L8P in mine.

 

[The Raven]

personally, i would prefer the L8P in mine.

You can just make that happen yourself, as the L8P is a crate motor. It wouldn't be competitive as a production uber-truck though. It's hard for me to say what I think GM would choose to do if they chose to produce a Raptor R/TRX competitor, as they've never been known to just throw the halo-motor in a truck and call it a day like Ford and Dodge have done. Maybe going back one motor generation would be more GM-like...so the LT4 or LT5. Unless maybe they can use the LT package supercharger on the L8T...problem is that's an iron block 6.6 so they'd be starting with a major efficiency disadvantage.

This is why I don't really expect anything though. I can't remember the last time they did a top-dog full-size truck...maybe the 454 SS?

 

[2KWIK2C]

I can say the LT4 fits perfect in the trail boss. Love the added power when you need it. Plus the truck sounds mean as hell! One of those "you'll probably lose son!"

 

[Stormin08]

You can just make that happen yourself, as the L8P is a crate motor. It wouldn't be competitive as a production uber-truck though. It's hard for me to say what I think GM would choose to do if they chose to produce a Raptor R/TRX competitor, as they've never been known to just throw the halo-motor in a truck and call it a day like Ford and Dodge have done. Maybe going back one motor generation would be more GM-like...so the LT4 or LT5. Unless maybe they can use the LT package supercharger on the L8T...problem is that's an iron block 6.6 so they'd be starting with a major efficiency disadvantage.

This is why I don't really expect anything though. I can't remember the last time they did a top-dog full-size truck...maybe the 454 SS?

this is a high mark on my to do list....wanting to give the 6.2 a chance, was planning to compress it...but the lower end has me not wanting to waste time....L8P, drive...then compress that !

 

[Nebraska Navy]

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[Stormin08]

i am sure we have all seen that, short of wide body and links....mine was being built to head that direction...prior to this release.
the E-clik set up is #1 on my next mod list, working some visual details now prior to moving that direction

 

[Jmzvet]

Apparently the Raptor and TRX don’t add much to the bottom line at Ford and Stellantis to make it profitable enough for GM to jump into the super truck market.

 

[Murph76]

You can just make that happen yourself, as the L8P is a crate motor. It wouldn't be competitive as a production uber-truck though. It's hard for me to say what I think GM would choose to do if they chose to produce a Raptor R/TRX competitor, as they've never been known to just throw the halo-motor in a truck and call it a day like Ford and Dodge have done. Maybe going back one motor generation would be more GM-like...so the LT4 or LT5. Unless maybe they can use the LT package supercharger on the L8T...problem is that's an iron block 6.6 so they'd be starting with a major efficiency disadvantage.

This is why I don't really expect anything though. I can't remember the last time they did a top-dog full-size truck...maybe the 454 SS?

454ss was a dog... as were the 5.7 350s only made 185 hp back then and passed nothin including gas stations

 

[RET-G]

Ideal would be a SC/turbo setup. Ford had one years ago, used on some specific model vehicles not sold to the public. At approx. 2K rpm the SC was de-clutched from the drive allowing the turbo to keep the boost. It was Ford's way to get some fast cars to a certain market and not break the bank. Problem was, always in service....

 

[The Raven]

454ss was a dog... as were the 5.7 350s only made 185 hp back then and passed nothin including gas stations

It was 230hp in 1990 and 255hp for the rest of its tenure...but the important note here is that this was actually a TRUCK motor, not like the car motors that uber trucks today use. That 454 made 385lbft of torque. Don't forget that the Corvette had a whopping 245hp and even a Ferrari at the time was packing a measly 300hp. 230hp and 385lbft of torque in a single cab short bed truck was pretty badass in that world.